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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Dick Gaughan - Handful of Earth (Scotland 1981) @320

This was the first album I had recorded in Scotland. For some reason, it seemed to strike a chord with people and it is the most succesful recording I have made in terms of acclaim and sales.

It was Melody Maker's Album of the Year in 1981 and in 1989 it was voted in the Critics' Poll, and more important to me, the Readers' Poll, in Folk Roots as Album of the Decade. I have had hundreds of reviews, good and bad, and I pay little attention to them. But when the actual people you're playing to confer an honour like that upon you, you shed the odd tear of thanks that you've been privileged to be able to do something which means something to them.

Why they voted it such was a complete mystery to me then and still is today. As a friend of mine says, "Never ask one of the actors what they thought of the play".